"Hey. Hey."
Smack smack.
"Kuuuuuu…."
Hansoo clutched his head and then got up after feeling somebody slapping his cheeks.
It felt like his whole body was getting smashed apart.
His transformation had long disappeared.
'But it seems like I regenerated quite a bit since I'm alive.'
Hansoo quickly regained his senses as he checked the person urgently calling for him
'Is it an ally? Or is it Camille?'
Though he didn't know who it was but it didn't seem like he was being restrained or was trapped somewhere.
'Were they just looking over me the whole time?'
Since it seemed like they left his unconscious body alone it seemed like they didn't have enmity.
But Hansoo's expression quickly turned fearsome as he verified the thing which was slapping his cheeks.
The fairy smiled while looking at Hansoo.
"Eyy. Why are you doing that with our relationship. Heehee."
"…What made you to come out all the way out to the Red Zone?"
The fairy smiled brightly.
"We really usually don't come out but… this isn't some everyday event right?"
The fairy then looked at the surroundings.
The huge Calamity Fish which had turned into a corpse under Hansoo's hands.
The fairy spoke with an expression of admiration.
"Well you know very well. That we make sure to give rewards. But we didn't really think that somebody could kill this so we don't have any runes or artifacts… we don't really have anything prepared."
"…"
"But then it'll be too sad for our precious friend who struggled this hard right? So we came to give you a small gift."
Then the fairy looked at Hansoo as it smiled in glee.
Hansoo looked at the Fairy as he spoke.
"Strange. It wouldn't really be fun for you guys if I were to get stronger."
The fairy clapped at those words.
"So we pondered for quite a while! As to how mister Hansoo would struggle more and fight more desperately. Then we came into a conclusion."
"What is it?"
The fairy smiled as it spoke.
"Do you want to receive them one by one? Or do you want to receive them all at once?"
"…?"
Then the Fairy pulled out one of the skills it had brought along.
Hansoo's eyes trembled after seeing this.
'Solo Numbering'
Solo Numbering skill number 8.
<lord of the dead>.
It was different depending on the mastery of the skill but it was an extremely fearsome skill which allowed one to raise the ones who they had killed into spectres and allowed the usage of the special skill, <death>, during the day.
An amazing skill which fit the title of Solo Numbering.
He then realized what the fairy meant when it asked him about receiving them one by one or all at once.
"If you want to receive the reward for killing the Calamity Fish then I'll give this to you right now. And everytime you kill one more then I'll give you a skill at a similar level as this."
"…"
"But on the other hand, if you deny this now and fail to kill even one of them then you won't get anything. It'll be harder too. But if you were to kill them all…. Then you know right? That we calculate the reward according to the struggle perfectly right?"
Hansoo knew what it was implying.
And it probably knew also.
As to what his answer was.
"I'll see you later."
"As I expected, I like you because you don't disappoint us Heehee. Be strong!"
Hansoo shook his head as he looked at the disappearing fairy.
Though it seems like he had made his decision on a whim he actually thought about it a lot.
Since the upcoming road he would need to take would be very harsh.
If everything rolls out according to his plan and stronger and more influential people learn of the knowledge he knew as the future information slowly got released, the invasion of the Abyss will hasten as well.
His path was basically a fight against time during which the chances of the invasion of the Abyss being faster than the 5 years of the past was likely.
Whether the invasion of the Abyss is faster.
Or him getting from the Red Zone to the Violet Zone and waiting for the invasion after finishing his preparation.
The previous choice would put him at a disadvantage and his plans had been set for the latter choice anyways.
Doing well until the Indigo Zone but not being able to finish the preparations on the Violet Zone due to the invasion being faster than expectations… This was not succeeding.
It was just failure.
The amount of time given was a bit too tight for him to proceed safely and prepare perfectly.
If you exclude unexpected events then it meant you needed to reduce as much outside influences and run as fast as possible.
<which means that we need to run until our soles get sweaty right! hahahaha! wow this is much more tedious the more i think about it. i suddenly don't want to go back to the past.>
Kangtae's words suddenly rose up in his head.
Anyways, since this is the situation, every skill like that would give Hansoo a great amount of strength.
But Hansoo chose the latter choice.
Since he wasn't finished after just clearing the Red Zone.
It would be harder on him during the Red Zone but if he succeeds then the reward would be tremendous.
He would have much more freedom in the Orange Zone.
'They didn't even have rewards for the Calamity Fish in the plan of the Red Zone anyways.'
No one had killed the Calamity Fish before.
How could he just plan with a notion of <they'll give something good> here.
One always needed to take account of the worst case scenario when making plans.
'It's all done then.'
Hansoo got rid of the thoughts of the fairy from his head and then checked his body status.
He didn't know how long it had been since he fainted.
He needed to check his current situation quickly and then move out.
'Please… Please be here.'
Hansoo started to check his belongings.
Other things were ok but he could not lose 2 things.
The Divine Stone Fragment was important but the Relic which acted as the <key> was also important.
'Hoo. You did good. My unconscious self.'
After opening his pouch he could see the Divine Stone firmly encased within the cocoon and the heart which he had pulled out from the offspring of the Calamity Fish was there as well.
And he was firmly holding onto the Galadriang's Relic with his hand.
It seems his energy lasted even while he was unconscious.
His heart was fully recovered as well.
'This is good enough.'
Hansoo sighed in relief and then gazed at the Divine Stone Fragment.
A fragment which was letting off a blinding white light.
Though it was pretty calm now, it would start to pour out a frightful amount of energy once it gets stimulated.
Like it had been inside the Calamity Fish.
'My overall power level has gotten quite better also.'
Hansoo, who had been staring at the amount of runes that had risen and the Galadriang's Relic, made a just-in-case like expression as he opened the pouch again.
'Since I don't know what will happen.'
Hansoo then very carefully started to scratch the Divine Stone Fragment.
Though it was extremely hard, the fact that it was a fragment meant that it was a piece which had been broken off already.
When Hansoo carefully stimulated the cracks in various parts of the Divine Stone Fragment, a small piece dropped off.
An extremely small piece, a fragment which wasn't even the size of one grain of rice.
It was extremely small in comparison to the head-sized Divine Stone Fragment but Hansoo carefully picked it off, covered it with the cocoon and put it back into the pouch.
'I don't want to use it but… I should prepare it for emergencies.'
Hansoo created a few more and then thought of the next stage.
'The next guy should be <devouring and vomiting root>… It should start to move soon. I can't calculate since I don't know how much time has passed…'
The reason why their territories were set was because they didn't have a good relationship with each other.
There was one World Tree they wanted to eat but many had jumped onto it.
Since the Calamity Fish has died, the <devouring and vomiting root> will start to move seriously.
'I need to collect many more Gehwche seeds before the Root starts moving.'
This time, tens of thousands would not be enough.
He basically needed to gather hundreds of thousands of them.
'I'll go to the Gehwche Colony. I hope no more than 3 days have passed.'
But from the fully recovered heart, it seems like quite a long time had passed.
Hansoo quickly ran outside.
...........
In the location a bit off from the Root where it was originally a sea.
Now it had become land from the corpse of the Calamity Fish and the debris it had thrown up and many people were roaming around in his place while digging around the debris.
"Find it quickly!"
"This is our side! Lighthouse is that side! Why are you coming all the way here after negotiating it!"
"Uwahahaha! I found it! This is amazing!"
Oooooong.
The people who had divided up the areas and were now searching for the Relics of the spectres, who had now turned into dust, found them and then swung them in air with a content expression.
Of course there were people who had gears better than the Relics.
But a Relic which allowed for various different attacks and had an edge on every part of the weapon would be of great help.
There was nothing much to say about the people who had worse weapons than the relics.
And because of this the high-ranking clansmen of the Six Great Pillars, The Twelve Root were madly searching around his giant trash island.
Part of them searched the inside of the Calamity Fish and part of them searched outside the corpse endlessly.
But Michael Christopher, the patriarch of Lighthouse, made a dissatisfied expression.
"How is there no reward for catching this humongous thing?"
Liu Hong, who was the newly appointed captain of the shock troopers, nodded at those words.
"I don't know why but it didn't spit out any runes. And it seemed like there were two extremely important looking areas but one had been crushed already and someone had already taken something out from the part that looked like the heart."
"Hmm…"
'Tsk. There's no way to know what happened inside either.'
There weren't any messages or Blue Carrier Pigeons.
He had searched around just in case something was blocked off or hidden but there was a limited amount of intel he could acquire from the already dead Calamity Fish.
Liu Hong spoke towards Christopher.
"Anyways, everyone's nerves are getting on edge more and more. It has been quite a while since they had all gathered in one place like this so…"
"Damn."
There was quite a large amount of Relics.
But the just because there was a large amount of Relics did not mean that they would all get them equally.
And due to this the clansmen were edgier and edgier.
"Any other reports?"
"One of the Seven Departed Souls is heading this way."
"…Didn't they die yet? I thought that they all died around the Branch since they weren't seen for quite a while."
Michael Christopher frowned.
Even he, who did not fear anything, could only feel pressured by these guys.
Christopher frowned as he spoke.
"Tell them to prevent as many collisions as possible. Since it's dangerous."
"Yes."
He didn't know how the power struggle was going to play out from this incident.
He needed to maintain as much of his forces as possible during this period when everyone was edgy.
Losing Kalz Morenn was a huge loss already.
He could not lose any more than this.
'Anyways where is that guy?'
Kalz Morenn had reported to him before he went in.
That there was a dumbass going in with the Calamity Fish as the target.
But he knew now.
That guy was not a dumbass.
The giant corpse of the Calamity Fish in the distance proved this.
Rumors about this guy will spread across all of the Red Zone.
'I hope I can find him.'
But Christopher didn't have many expectations.
They hadn't finished their search in the Calamity Fish because it was so big but it had already been 3 days since the Calamity Fish died.
The fact that the guy had not appeared yet meant that he had died.
Even if he was alive, why would he stay in a place like this.
At that time, when he wasn't really expecting anything more, one of his underlings shouted out.
"They say they've found him!"
"Huh? He's still here after three days?"
Christopher made a happy smile.
............
Dududududu.
A deep part of the World Tree Root.
Something that was huge and had the shape of a Root, and was sucking onto the toxins rising up towards the Trunk through the Interior, stopped suddenly.
<…>
It should be able to feel the vibrations made from the bastard who lives in the sea as it chews onto the World Tree roots.
Since there was no way to not know about the vibrations that occur when it starts eating.
But even after a long period of time the vibrations were not happening
<…>
The Root-shaped creature started to get curious.
There was no need to suck on the toxins of the World Tree if that thing didn't exist.
Since it could just go directly to the sea and suck it out.
Soon the Root, or even Snake-like, looking creature opened its huge mouth, let go of the World Tree Root it was biting into and then started to dig down into the ground.
Towards the toxic sea which was the territory of his rival.
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